I wanted to post the following article on the rising cost of Home Health Care.  To me, it’s kind of shocking how little technology comes up when discussing these looming problems, which are so easily enabled and supported by technology.  Unfortunately, cost of care will just increase as the supply decreases. With the exponential aging boom, the rising cost of healthcare, and lack of caregivers and brick and mortar to support our aging population, we have to start supplementing hands-on care with technology tools. There are plenty technologies available to support caregivers, health professionals, family members and most importantly, to enable the seniors themselves to better care for themselves. GrandCare Systems is just one of the digital home health technologies on the market that provides a technology tool to the care providers. It can help to increase the level and efficiency of care, without having to have a “physical presence” at all times.

Think about how these technologies could be utilized – – family could make sure a loved one was eating, taking medication and provide cognitive assists & reminders. The loved one would be encouraged and supported to better care for his/her needs and chronic conditions. Health providers can monitor vitals and overall wellness patterns from afar. Family & Doctors could video chat with the Loved One right on the touchscreen. Family members can go online to view sensor data, set up alert parameters and add personalized content (pics, messages, reminders, calendar, videos, music) to the Loved One’s touchscreen. Caregivers can choose to receive automated email/phone/text alerts if anything in the home seems amiss (e.g. stove left on, got up during the night and didn’t return to bed, noncompliance, etc). Technologies like GrandCare can be a big time and money saver and can spread one caregiver farther…in essence turning them into a super caregiver… I am hoping that technology really helps to fill this critical void and bridges the family, loved one and professional care providers into a cohesive, connected virtual network.  Do we really have a choice? If we do not utilize available and affordable enabling technology tools (and I meant tools because these absolutely do NOT replace the caregiver, but instead enhance the caregiver and the entire care network), then we will most certainly bankrupt this country, our children and grandchildren…

Anyways – just thought I’d share this interesting article from Smart Money Magazine…

Will Home Health Care Get Pricier?

Nov 01, 2011  blogs.smartmoney.com
By Catey Hill

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced yesterday that its payments to home health care agencies would decrease by more than 2% in 2012. The question for consumers who use home health care services is this: Will these decreased payments to agencies force consumers to pay more out-of-pocket costs for home health services?

Probably not right away, experts say. “Seniors may not feel the effects immediately through Medicare cost sharing, but the reduction might result in greater out-of-pocket costs for non-covered services as agencies increase other fees to make up for the loss in income,” says  Mary Johnson, a policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan seniors rights group.

If someone is  eligible for Medicare-covered home health care services, they  probably won’t immediately feel the impact of these reductions in payments, since they currently have no Medicare co-pays or cost sharing responsibilities for those services (as long as they have original Medicare and get services from a Medicare-certified home health agency), she says.  However, anyone who gets coverage through Medicare Advantage  should contact their plan to figure out the  co-pays.

That said, “there’s a considerable amount of home health care services, often the bulk of care, that Medicare does not cover,” she says. “Fees for those services might be impacted as agencies shift the cost to patients.” Examples include 24-hour-a-day care, homemaker services like cleaning and laundry, personal care provide by home health aides like bathing and dressing and assistance to the bathroom, she says. Often these non-covered services are “the single biggest cost of home care for any senior dependent on those services and their families,” she adds.

Seniors wanting to find home healthcare services or to learn more, should click here. For more information about how Medicare pays for home health care, see thePublication Medicare and Home Health Care.